As a sensation, sweetness is generally recognized as a perception of sucrose and artificial sweeteners thus have ratings in terms of sucrose equivalents. There are a wide variety of compounds that enhance sweetness. Although naturally-occurring carbohydrate sweeteners, such as sucrose, are the most widely used sweeteners they suffer from the disadvantages of high cost, high caloric content, and the promotion of tooth decay. Artificial sweeteners have been designed that overcome these problems but they are sometimes rejected by the consumer for not having a sufficiently “sucrose-like” taste. Artificial sweeteners have different sweetness profiles from that of sucrose and often suffer from side effects such as delays in the onset of sweetness perception and/or unpleasant aftertastes.
Due to their contribution to tooth decay, the use of natural sweeteners, such as sucrose or high fructose corn syrup, to provide superior sweetness characteristics in oral care compositions is problematic. To reduce the tooth decay contribution, artificial sweeteners are often employed to provide sweetness though they may have undesirable tastes to consumers such as delayed sweetness onset; lingering sweet aftertaste; bitter, metallic or astringent taste; and/or dryness. For example, the sweet tastes of natural and/or synthetic high-potency sweeteners are slower in onset and longer in duration than the sweet taste produced by sugar and thus change the taste balance of a food composition. Because of these differences, use of a natural high-potency sweetener to replace a bulk sweetener, such as sugar, in a food or beverage, causes an unbalanced temporal and/or flavor profile. In addition to the difference in temporal profile, high-potency sweeteners generally exhibit (i) lower maximal response than sugar, (ii) off tastes including bitter, metallic, cooling, astringent, licorice-like taste, etc., and/or (iii) sweetness which diminishes on iterative tasting. It is well known to those skilled in the art of food/beverage formulation that changing the sweetener in a composition requires re-balancing of the flavor and other taste components (e.g., acidulants). If the taste profile of natural and synthetic high-potency sweeteners could be modified to impart specific desired taste characteristics to be more sugar-like, the type and variety of compositions that may be prepared with that sweetener would be significantly expanded. Accordingly, it would be desirable to selectively modify the taste characteristics of natural and synthetic high-potency sweeteners.
The aftertaste of artificial sweeteners in oral care products is particularly problematic in that many of the ingredients in oral care compositions have negative taste attributes of their own. Whilst flavor has been used as a compensator to disguise the off-tasting materials, including the sweetener, flavor itself can impart bitterness when used at too high a level, requiring yet more sweetener to overcome the flavor. The end result can be a formula that is too bitter, too sweet, imparts a negative aftertaste or is simply excessively costly. The object of this invention is to provide a novel combination of sweeteners that overcomes the aforementioned negative attributes. This combination provides a longer lasting freshness, clean feel, reduction in bitterness, and taste impression than do any of the sweeteners alone.
Some relevant disclosures in relating to the use of sweetener combinations include: EP 658 340 A1 discloses offsetting the bitterness of betaine surfactants with a combination of saccharin, or a saccharin alternative, and another sweetening agent such as thaumatin or stevioside. The document does not teach the use of triple combinations of sweeteners where saccharin use was reduced, such as described herein.
In US 2007/0116831 A1 (Prakash, Dubois) disclose the use in a dental composition of a high potency sweetener composition comprising a natural high potency sweetener such as rebaudioside A and/or a synthetic high potency sweetener, such as sucralose, in combination with a ‘sweet taste improving composition’ and a dental active. Their objective was to create a more sugar-like profile. In US 2009/0053378 A1 Prakash et al. build on US 2007/0116831 A1 by further disclosing the inclusion of a sweetness enhancer, such as an aryl carboxylic acid derivative. Neither of these documents teaches the use of the combinations of sweeteners described herein.
US 2009/0004360 A1 (Bingley) is also concerned with using a sweetener modifier, in this case a (di)hydroxybenzoic acid, to modify sweetener profiles. It does not teach the use of multiple sweeteners.
US 2007/0178123 A1 (Levenson et al.) relates to flavor enhancing compositions for products for the treatment of cough. It discloses combinations of neotame and sucralose. EP 1 869 986 (Schwarz, Rathjen) discloses edible compositions said to have the taste profile of sucrose but which comprise a combination of isomaltulose, acesulfame K and another high intensity sweetener such as sucralose.
WO 2009/086049 (Catani, Liao) discloses a sweetening composition comprising a combination of sucralose and a purified extract of stevia comprising rebaudiosides and dulcosides. Within certain ratios of the sucralose to stevia, synergism of the sweetening intensity was observed. The document does not disclose particular combinations of the sucralose and stevia with other sweeteners.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,969 (Beyts) reveals sweetening synergy of sucralose and cyclamate within beverages.
JP 2002-171930 (Morita et al.) reports an excellent degree of sweetness and sweetness quality from combinations of sucralose, stevia and acesulfame K.
Despite this progress in developing new sweetener combinations with a more sucrose-like profile, there is still a need for oral, particularly dentifrice and rinse, compositions that include sweetness optimized compositions. It would be desirable to develop a sweetness composition that allows the quantity of natural or artificial sweetener in an orally delivered product to be reduced or optimized, thereby reducing the off-tastes associated with specific raw materials in the orally delivered product, but which avoids adverse effects on flavor. In particular, there is a need for a sweetener composition that is capable providing high sucrose equivalence, as well as modifying the perception of sweet flavor of the sweetener, the aftertaste of the sweetener, the sweetness onset period of the sweetener, the sweetness peak period of the sweetener and/or the sweetness decay period of the sweetener.